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Lego Hero Factory Savage Planet – Review

Our friends over at Warner Brothers have been kind enough to send us a little bundle of children’s DVDs for us to put through their paces. Our latest package includes Ben 10 Destroy all Aliens, LEGO Hero Factory Savage Planet, Tom and Jerry Tricks & Treats and Scooby-Doo! Big Top.

Having considered the titles in question, Practically Perfect Mum admitted to a shocking lack of knowledge of this particular genre and realised that the only sensible course of action was to turn the job over to one of her expert product testers – in this case four year old Zu. Despite a demanding morning learning songs for his nursery’s impending Nativity production, once home, she dusted him off and put him to work. Mother and son negotiated an acceptable fee (a salami and cucumber sandwich, cheese and onion French Fries and on completion of the mission, a small bar of mini milk), and set to work. To get ourselves in the cinema mood, we took our snacks into the lounge, closed all the curtains, turned up the volume and settled down to watch our selected title, ‘Lego Hero factory Savage Planet’.

Rated PG. Running time 43 mins

The film is a classic goodies vs baddies, heroes vs villains story.

The most advanced and skilled heroes of the universe are built at Lego’s Hero Factory with one purpose — to save the world from evil. In this animated adventure, rookie Rocka answers a civilian distress call from the planet Quatros and discovers that the planet itself needs his help. Rocka is taken hostage by former Hero professor Aldous Witch who has now become a power-mad witch Doctor. Stormer, Furno, Bulk, Stringer and Nex head out from the Hero Factory to save Rocka but when they reach Quatros they discover that the evil Witch Doctor plans to destroy the planet. The Heroes must work together to defeat the Witch Doctor and save Quatros!

POSITIVES

What struck me immediately was how similar the screen characters were to my son’s lego figures in his bedroom. It’s rather appealing that (apart from the lights and sounds) a young child can create a decent replica of these film characters from a Lego kit.

There’s some great animation. We both enjoyed watching the jet-propelled flying chases.

Atmospheric music elevated this from a TV show. As Zu said

It’s a proper movie Mummy. You said it was a film.

I understand what he meant.

It’s a story with a moral. The goodies defeated evil, of course and this was credited to their excellent teamwork.

NEGATIVES

Americanisms. I am guilty of switching off when I hear macho male hero speak – especially when it’s conveyed in an American accent.  My sons are much more accepting as many of their favourite programmes are American.

It was scary.  There was lots of fighting and characters with mean red eyes. Again this was my opinion and I’m quite surprised that it didn’t phase my four year old one little bit.

CONCLUSIONS

For me it was predictable and not really my cup of tea, but as my sons and I concluded when discussing it later, I am probably not the target audience, being a girl AND old. I declared myself ‘out’ and left it to my boys to rate the film.

My four year old enjoyed most of the film but lost concentration about ten minutes from the end. I would conclude that it was a little too old for him.

My six and eight year olds both really enjoyed it and gave it 8/10 and 9/10 respectively. The big boys would definitely recommend it!

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